Gerascophobia
by 6 cats in the bag
Summary: When Rainbow Dash discovers a couple of gray feathers in her wings, and a gray hair in her mane, she panics, and rushes to seek help right away. Rainbow Dash is shocked at what the outcome is for her sudden aging.


Gerascophobia

Summary: When Rainbow Dash discovers a couple of gray feathers in her wings, and a gray hair in her mane, she panics, and rushes to see the doctor right away. Rainbow Dash is shocked at what the outcome is for her sudden aging.

**A/N: H'okay, this took me **_**forever **_**to write. I started writing this just before Christmas, and I kept getting distracted by other things, so this took me a lot longer than I had hoped. I just wanted to release this as soon as possible. **

**You know, I absolutely love Rainbow Dash with all my heart and I think she's the best pony ever and she just gives me these feels whenever I watch her, but surprisingly I had fun writing this, and I usually don't like to put my favorite characters in too much pain. But, this was fun! I hope you like it! **

**I'm way too hyper and fangirlish for my own good. .-. **

Rainbow Dash zipped, zagged, twirled, and tore through the summer air, brushing clouds away with the swift movement of her wings, and the burning rays of the sun glared off of her cerulean flank. The blue pegasus swooped down low, rustling the tops of trees and racing the freelance wind as it buffetted her glorious coat. She weaved through the wispy clouds, the clumps of birds barracading the air that pleading for an accident, and the tops of lanky trees that kissed the bright sky. She felt alive. As alive as a independent pegasus should feel as they rode the wind.

Rainbow spread her wings farther, the delicate feathers catching the breeze and acting like a parachute, halting her in mid-air. She hovered easily in the sky, admiring her handiwork all around her. The skies were successfully cleared; it would be another beautiful day in Ponyville.

"Looks like my work here is done," she announced to herself, brushing her hooves together, her eyes half-lidded in satisfaction. She lowered her gaze to the bustling streets of Ponyville below, feeling delighted that she wasn't one of those sore ponies that usually got trapped between the crowds of local citizens filling the streets. "I think I'm going to go have a rest."

Rainbow then kicked it into overdrive, zooming brilliantly through the sky, the delicate lace of a rainbow streaming out behind her. Before returning home to her house perched on the clouds, she revved her engine and performed a few loopty-loops in the air, deciding to show off to the other pegasi milling around the puffy veils.

Rainbow Dash, influentially taking she was worn out from excessive flying, she settled down on a white, puffy cloud and curled her hooves around her nose, closing her eyes. One little nap would surely refill her system.

: : : : :

"Hurry up, stupid balloon! I wanna see Rainbow Dash!"

Pinkie Pie bounced on the woven texture of the basket of the large purple balloon she was using to escape into the clouds, urging it to move faster. "Come _on! _Why can't you just- _ooh, _birdy!"

Pinkie's disdainful protruding was cut short, and her attention was snipped away from the balloon and onto the colorful birds swooping and topsy-turving through the pale sky. Her eyes grew large, momentarily forgetting her quarrel with the balloon, which was consigned to oblivion. "I forgot how pretty it is up here! Fluttershy should really come up here more ofte - _oof!_"

Puffs of white filled Pinkie Pie's nostrils and masked her vision, causing her to cough and flail to bat away the clouds blanketing her face. "Stupid clouds! Oh, look, I'm here!"

She nearly hopped out of the basket, but then remembered that she wasn't a pegasus pony, and she wasn't able to walk on clouds. She mentally cursed herself for not asking Twilight for one of those spells so she could do so.

Then, Pinkie spotted Rainbow Dash, who was snoozing away on billowy, comfortable-looking cloud. She was too far away to prod, so Pinkie whipped out her bullhorn, took in the biggest breath, and shrieked, "_RAINBOW DASH, WAKE UP!" _

Dash's eyes shot open, and she was automatically launched aggravatingly into the air, her brain knocking around her skull as Pinkie's voice permeated her head. It took her a few moments to recover, and when she did, she not-so-gracefully floated down and onto the cloud again.

"P-Pinkie..."

"Oh, hi, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie exclaimed, waving her hoof frantically at her friend.

"Couldn't you have gotten me up with a different approach?" Dash suggested, holding her head, which was abnormally beginning to clock out.

"Sorry, the bullhorn was the only thing I had!" Pinkie mused. Rainbow rolled her eyes, exasperated.

The cyan pony stood up and stretched out her legs and flexed her wings. It was just then that she noticed Pinkie's eyes focus on her wing, and then pop out of her head. Her mouth was set agape.

"Uh, what's wrong, Pinkie?"

The pink pony pointed a hoof towards a sprout of feathers imbedded in her wing. Rainbow swivelled her head around and spread her wing so she could get a better glance at what Pinkie was motioning to.

That's when she saw it.

A gray feather.

Dash's eyes grew larger than their normal extent, and as she opened her mouth to say something, Pinkie beat her to the punch.

"Dashie, you've got one in your mane, too!"

"Huh?"

Pinkie Pie pulled out a golden-rimmed mirror - Celestia knows why she had it; since when has she ever cared much about her appearance? - and held it in front of the startled, confused pony's face. Dash turned her head slightly to the side, and that's when her eyes fixated on the particular specimen.

A tiny clump of gray hairs, all anchored securely in her roots, staring her right in the face.

Rainbow Dash shot up in the air, her eyes wild with fear and devastation. "No!" she hollered, her wings flapping rapidly in the air, blowing wisps of clouds away. "Gray hairs and feathers are only supposed to come when you're - well, older! Like - like, Granny Smith!"

"Oh, come on, Dashie," Pinkie burlesqued nonchalantly, as if there wasn't a huge dilemma at all. "it's not all bad."

Dash swooped down and took a hold of Pinkie's shoulders, shaking her enough so her collarbones jostled. "No, Pinkie! It _is _bad! Pegasus ponies aren't supposed to get old at _this _age! I can't retire _now, _I'm the best flyer in all of Equestria! Oh, no, this is bad. This is very, very, very, very bad. What if Princess Celestia retires me too soon? I won't be able to lead the next hurricane to bring Cloudsdale its water and - oh! I won't be able to join the Wonderbolts! Oh, no, no no, _no!_ What am I going to - "

Rainbow's heart-wrenching rant was cut short when Pinkie fumblingly gripped her shoulders, and pulled her face towards her own. "Dash, calm down! There's an easy way to fix this."

"How can there be an easy way? There's _no way _to fix th - "

"Snap out of it, Dashie! You're acting like Rarity." Pinkie reluctantly took her hoof out of the cyan pony's mouth. "All we gotta do it pluck all of the little grays out of your wing and mane, easy as pie! - oh, pie! That reminds me to get some later..." Rainbow rolled her eyes impatiently as Pinkie drifted off to her laughter-filled, sweet-permeated, party-suffused world for a couple moments.

Rainbow flicked her ear. "Just merely pluck them out? Will that help?"

"Of course, Dashie! Just watch and learn."

"Pinkie, I don't - _yoww!_" Rainbow flinched as the gray hairs are plucked from her mane, then her wing.

"There, ship-shape!"

"Uh, thank you?"

"No problem, Dashie-Washie! Call me if you need anything else, ciao!" And on her last words, her balloon began slowly drift down towards the bustling streets of Ponyville below. Rainbow watched it until the top of the balloon was swallowed up by the sea of puffy white.

"Well," Rainbow said to herself, shaking out her wings. "now I can finally finish my nap." Then, she flopped back down on her comfortable cloud, and managed to float into another well-needed sleep.

: : : :

Rainbow Dash's eyes timidly began to open, and the blurriness clouding her eyes slowly cleared away as the cyan pony uncurled herself from her pleasant rest and stretched out her legs. Her mouth extended in a gaping yawn, and she snapped her tongue against the roof of her mouth to wash away the barren dryness.

She shook her colorful spectrum of a mane and clopped towards her bedroom. All she really felt like doing was making herself comfortable with a steaming cup of hot cocoa and a fresh book of _Daring Do and the Legend of the Seven Cities, _but she knew better than to be lazy on a cloudy day like today.

Sighing idly under her breath, she leisurely clunked over to her mirror, examining herself with compensation.

"Perfect as alwa - eh?"

Something in the mirror caught Dash's eye immediately, and her face screwed up in distaste.

Fastened securely smack-dab in the middle of her wings were - not one, but _two _gray feathers. They ruffled mockingly from the wind that flowed in from the open window. Rainbow yelped in surprise.

Before she can panic anymore, she suddenly noticed that, in her mane, lied another clump of gray hairs, larger and more ugly than the last clump she found. Dash bursted into a fit of absolute and utter panic.

"No, no!" she wallowed, pressing her hooves against her cheekbones. "Oh, mother of Celestia, not again! This can't happen _again!_ I'm supposed to look dashing, majestic, _graceful!_ Vibrant! Now I just look _old!_" Rainbow Dash squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to take another glimpse at her revolting gray hairs and feathers. "I can't go around looking like _this! _What to do - wait! I can go see Rarity, she'll know what to do."

Rainbow Dash bolted out of her window and flew towards Ponyville, her wings flapping violently against the rushing wind. She flew as fast as she can, hoping she wouldn't get stopped by other Pegasi and have them see her horrid locks of gray.

Soon enough, Rarity's boutique was hastily coming into view, and Dash kicked herself into overdrive to continue the rest of the way. She tried to halt herself, but she was going too fast and couldn't stop herself in time. Instead, she remarkably lost her balance and accidentally hurled herself through the window, the glass shattering on impact and sprinkling onto the floor. Oops, she would have to apologize to Rarity later.

Rainbow Dash kept twisting in the air, growing dizzier until eventually she crashed into one of Rarity's naked mannequins. It toppled to the floor, taking her with it. Dash's eyeballs spun and her brain rattled in her skull. She shook her head, clearing the stars dancing in front of her vision. That's when she saw Rarity traipse into the room, her orange-rimmed glasses resting on her muzzle and a tape measure held in her mouth.

The tape measure fell from between her teeth and her jaw dropped when she saw a limp, dizzy Rainbow Dash laying on top of one of her fallen-over mannequins in the center of the room. She barely noticed the broken glass strewn across the floor against the wall.

"My, my, Rainbow Dash! What in Celestia happened?"

"S-sorry, Rarity," she apologized, managing to stand on all fours and delicately lift the mannequin back into place. "I just needed to get here in a hurry."

"What's the matter, dear?"

"This." Dash trotted over to Rarity and spread her wings, motioning towards the dull gray feathers imbedded in her flesh. She also showed her the ones in her mane. Rarity's eyes grew wide in horror. She reeled back, clapping her hoof over her mouth.

"Oh, my!" she exclaimed. "You poor thing!"

"Yeah. Do you think you can help me? There's _no way _in Celestia I'm going to be seen like this."

"You certainly came to the right place. Come, dear, hurry," Rarity murmured, wrapping her tail around Dash's leg and pulling her over to the back of the room.

Pushed up against the wall was a small table, bottles of dye, shampoo, conditioner, and clips spread across the surface of it. Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. "What's all this for?"

"I'm glad I had all this out... this is very serious..." Rarity mumbled, probably anticipating that she would be the only one to hear it; except Rainbow Dash heard every word spoken. She tried to swallow down the uncomfortable lump lodged in her throat.

"What's all this for?" Rainbow Dash repeated, her voice scratchy.

"It's dye, darling. It covers your gray hairs with a color of choice, and nopony will be able to tell the difference."

"And you're sure it will work?"

"Of course, dear. I've used it many times on my mane and tail."

Rainbow looked at her. "You've had gray hairs before?"

Rarity flashed her a look that seemed to say, _are you a blithering idiot? _"Why, of course not! I just do it for beauty." Rarity took a light blue-colored bottle into her mouth and held it against Rainbow's wings, studying it for a bit before uncapping it and squeezing a good amount onto a plastic palate. She did the same with a bottle of medium-green, the color of her mane in which the devilish gray hairs were dwelling. "Now, be a dear and go sit on that stool right over there, please. I'll be right with you." She motioned towards the lone stool that rested against the wall a couple feet away. Rainbow Dash complied and quietly sauntered over to the seat, still unsure about the whole idea. But, if Rarity said it would work, then Rainbow Dash wouldn't cease to complain otherwise.

A few ticking moments later, the ivory pony meandered over to the cerulean pony propped on the stool and chewing on her lower lip. The white palate filled with the dye and a paintbrush hovers in the air in front of Rarity, suspended by the means of her magic. The palate gently drifted towards the floor, while the brush continued to be poised in mid-air.

"Now, just stay still - it'll be over before you know it."

Rainbow Dash spent the next minute and a half staying as still as can be while Rarity coated her gray hairs and feathers with globs of the dye; the fumes tickled her nose and made her eyes swim with watery tears.

Then, Rarity made her wait for about half an hour to let the dye soak into her hair and feathers before washing it off. Rainbow's skin crawled and itched from the abhorrent boredom that plagued her. A twitch of the eye. A flick of the tail.

"Rarity, can't you just use your magic to make it soak in _faster?_" she droned, thwacking her tail impatiently against the wooden stool beneath her.

The other mare tutted at her. "Beauty takes patience, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow rolled her eyes.

Then, the timer beeped. Rainbow Dash let some air filter between her teeth, breathing a dramatic sigh of relief. She flopped down from the stool and stretched her legs. "Finally! That only took an eternity."

Rarity laughed as she clopped over to a set of curtains, and yanked them back, revealing a circular, wooden basin brimming with sparkling, cool water. Rainbow elevated a questioning eyebrow. "Um...? You're not going to make me go into that, are you?"

Rarity nodded firmly. "How else to expect us to wash the dye out?" She motioned towards the bath. Rainbow sighed.

"Fine."

The cyan pony traipsed hesitantly towards the basin, staring into the cool blue water. Her wavering reflection stared right back at her. She moved to feel the water, and immediately jerked her hoof back as the sudden frigid temperature nipped at her skin. "Rarity, I think it's too - _ah!_"

Her sentence was delayed as Rarity's head bashed into her hindquarters, and she was driven right into the benumbed liquid. She thrashed around for a moment, but then managed to sit up and suck in a breath of oxygen. Numerous beads of water dribbled down her face, and she immediately began to tremble.

"C-c-cold."

"Oops," Rarity murmured, grinning sheepishly at the shaking pony. "I forgot to check the temperature first."

Rainbow grumbled, frowning hard, and crossed her hooves. She stayed like that all the while Rarity soothingly massaged shampoo and conditioner into her feathers and mane. Rainbow remembered to close her eyes and hold her breath when the ivory pony showered her with more freezing water.

"There we are! That wasn't so bad, right, Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow grumbled something inaudible under her breath.

"Right, then." Rarity reached behind the bath basin and took out a pink, fluffy towel. She thrust it towards the pony struggling to slip out of the bathtub, but was rewarded with a shower of flying water droplets as the dripping pony shook herself clean. Rarity scowled.

"Ahem. Instead of doing _that_," Rarity said between clenched teeth, nudging the towel haughtily towards Rainbow Dash. "Use _this._"

Rainbow narrowed her eyes, but reluctantly obliged. She took it between her teeth and began to dry the rest of the water off with it.

"Beautiful!" Rarity exclaimed when Rainbow dropped the towel. She took out a mirror and held it in front of Rainbow's mane, then panned it into her wing. "No gray hairs can be seen."

Rainbow Dash leapt into the air out of gratitude, and hoof-punched the air. "It worked! I was starting to get really worried." She swept down and took Rarity into a thankful hug. "Thanks, Rarity!"

"Anything for you, dear."

The cerulean mare landed swiftly in front of the bigger mirror plastered to the wall. She flexed her wings and studied her reflection. Just then, something caught her eye. Something that made her heart plummet into her stomach.

A single gray hair, that protruded beneath her colorful mane and reached the surface and gasped for air. It was feeble, but clearly seen. Rainbow's eyes darted to her wing, in which_ three _dull feathers sat tauntingly.

She felt like screaming.

Rarity _did_ scream.

"H-how, wh- I DON'T GET IT!" Rainbow hollered, rage and worry boiling in her stomach.

"Dear, maybe you should go see a doctor," Rarity suggested, her voice wavering as if she was about to faint. "That doesn't seem normal..."

Dash nodded firmly, once, and abruptly bolted out of the door, leaving behind a trail of dazzling colors in her wake.

: : : : :

"What do you think, Dr. Goodall?"

Rainbow Dash flittered her wings nervously as she fidgeted on the metal table in the center of Mane Goodall's room. She chewed her bottom lip, waiting anxiously as the doctor checked her results of her medical exam.

Dr. Goodall turned to Dash, slowly, as if telling her would break her heart in two. Rainbow swallowed.

"I have your results, Miss Dash, but you're not going to like them."

"Well?" Rainbow demanded tensely, her tail sweeping apprehensively across the metal surface. "What are they?"

"Well, this medical exam revealed that your frequent high-speed flying is aging you about twice the normal rate. I didn't know this sort of thing could happen to pegasus ponies who fly as fast as you on a regular basis. Now, I'm not saying you should quit flying, I just think you should probably keep it low-key from now on, if you don't want to age as fast as you are now."

Rainbow Dash barely heard the last part as her brain scrolled and spun and nearly oozed out of her ears. Her jaw went slack and dropped to her hooves, her brain still trying to process what she'd listened to. No more flying at top speed? No more dashing through the clouds and wowing everypony with her spectacular moves? There was no way she would ever be able to join the Wonderbolts now.

Dash was sullen. Confused, agitated, shocked, overwrought. She walked home feeling that way, with her head sinking low to the ground and bobbing lamely with each distressing step. Shadows began to emanate across the cobblestone paths and everypony still lingering around the town. Darkness began to languidly fledge across the sky, engulfing everypony's homes and swelling over Ponyville like a gigantic airship blocking the sun's rays.

Rainbow Dash glanced up once, and kept her eyes fixed on the pegasus ponies gliding magnificently through the dim sky, swooping and looping and twirling around the clouds. Her heart grew heavy, and another giant lump made itself quite comfortable in her throat. The back of her eyes burned.

"I can't believe it," Dash murmured to herself, her voice choking. "I can't fly as speedily as I please anymore without aging twice as fast? This... sucks. What in the name of Celestia am I going to d-"

Rainbow Dash felt something wet and chilly graze the tip of her ear. Then, her backside. And, just before she knew it, it was raining, the little droplets shooting down faster than Parasprites can reproduce.

Soon enough she found herself soaked and chilled to the core, her bones jostling as tremors radiated through her body like long, electric fingers. Her mane stuck to her face, her wings plastered to her sides, and water spilled into her mouth.

Her eyes brimmed with tears, and the best thing about the rain is that nopony can be able to tell that you're crying.

"Rainbow Dash? What are you doing out here in the rain?"

Dash's ears pricked and she swivelled her head to the side when her name reached past her eardrums. She saw Twilight Sparkle standing in the threshold of her tree house, her eyebrows scrunched together in concern and wonder.

Dash didn't answer her question, instead turned her face towards the ground and let the pounding rain stream down her cheeks. Twilight called to her again, but she didn't feel like talking to anypony at that moment. She began to trot away, but before she could take another few steps a corrupt lightning bolt tore through the sky, the hair-raising boom ringing in her ears and causing her hair to stand on end.

She automatically revved her engine and barrelled herself towards Twilight, who swiftly moved out of the way and let Rainbow lumber into her house.

Twilight shut the door and turned to the drenched pegasus pony who stood, knees quaking and eyes as wide as horseshoes, in the middle of the room. The rainwater that ran down her body created murky puddles on the floor.

"Rainbow, what is the matter? Why were you just standing out there in the rain?"

Dash studied her muddy hooves. "I don't want to talk about it." Her voice was so full of dread and dejection that Twilight felt her own heart grow heavy. She traipsed towards her friend and carefully slid a hoof across the cyan pony's shoulders.

"Come on, let's get you dried up first before I make you tell me everything."

: : : : :

Rainbow Dash and Twilight curled up next to a crackling fireplace, warm blankets draped over their bodies and steaming cups of hot cocoa sitting in front of them. Dash clutched hers between her hooves and took tiny sips amidst her shivers. Twilight was afraid that the pegasus might've caught a cold.

Twilight had finally managed to force Dash into telling her about why she seemed so devastated, and fixed up a batch of hot cocoa as the quivering pony told her everything. She told her about finding a couple of gray hairs and feathers imbedded in her wings and mane when Pinkie dropped by for a visit, and how she plucked them out, and how she came to find out they grew back, and how she rushed over to Rarity's speedy quick, and what had happened there, all the way up to the heartbreaking news at the doctor's office, and up until she was standing in the rain. Twilight's heart plummetted into an lurid abyss by the middle of the story. She felt so sorry for the pegasus that her eyes began to spring with tears.

"I'm so, so sorry, Rainbow Dash," Twilight murmured sympathetically, placing a tender hoof on Dash's shoulder. "I know how much flying fast means to you. If there was any way I can hel - wait!"

Twilight sprung up from her comfortable place on the ground, her eyes lit up like Christmas lights in the evening, and her benign frown flipped upwards in a grin of realization. Dash raised an eyebrow in disorientation.

"What is it, Twilight?"

The amethyst-colored pony plunged her nose into a set of books propped earnestly on wooden shelves. She rummaged through them for a few moments before pulling a copy of _Rare Spells _out from the shelf. Her eyes continued to shine as she set the book on the floor and leafed through the pages.

"What's that for?" Rainbow inquired, still slightly puzzled.

"I remember reading up about this one spell that - oh! Here it is." She tapped her nose against a set of cursive words that reined at the bottom. "Apparently, your condition happens to a lot of pegasi that like fly as fast as you do - "

Rainbow snorted. "Oh, please. Nopony can fly as fast me," she gibed, her usual self-gloating returning despite her elapsed anguish about her dilemma.

Twilight ignored her. " - and right on this page, is a spell for aging pegasi to return to their natural adolescence."

Rainbow's heart skipped a beat and her ears pricked towards Twilight. She leapt up from the floor, absent-mindedly knocking over her cup of cocoa with her hoof in the process. "What, really? You're not kidding?!"

"No, I - "

Rainbow gripped her shoulders and loomed over her, pure relief and excitement filtering through her eyes and radiating onto Twilight's face so much that the purple unicorn could feel it penetrate her skull. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my go - "

"Wait, Rainbow," Twilight halted her mid-sentence and pushed the jittering pegasus away with her hoof against her chest. "It's a very difficult spell, almost impossible. I'm not so sure I can do it."

Rainbow felt crestfallen again. She gazed at Twilight with round, pleading eyes. "Please, Twilight? You have to try! I can't go on living if I won't be able to fly anymore!"

Twilight smiled and placed her hoof gently on the other mare's shoulders. "Of course I'll try."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, Twilight Sparkle!" Rainbow Dash tackled her to the ground in a friendly, meaningful hug, pressing her awkwardly into the hardwood flooring.

"Uh, no problem Rainbow - do you think you could get off me so I can actually do the spell now?"

"Oh, sorry."

Twilight rooted herself to the ground after Rainbow helped her back up, and positioned herself so her horn was pointed towards the pegasus in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut, and sparks began to crackle and fly as she began to perform the spell.

Rainbow felt lacy, gleaming tendons of color pulse and engulf her in prismatic flames as sparks continued to whiz and be launched from Twilight's horn. The unicorn's face was scrunched up in concentration, and beads of sweat trickled down her face.

_It's working! It's - _

Just then, a burst of blinding white light flashed throughout the room, and both ponies were pitched backwards all of a sudden, both smacking against the walls on either side of the room. Rainbow's breath was seized from her lungs and Twilight let out an audible grunt. They were both detained to the wall the wall as if some enduring magnetic force held both of them against their will.

Blazes of multicolored flames licked Rainbow's body, but they did not harm her. Instead, they captivated her eyes and blinded her for a few more moments before finally settling down and beginning to fade. Dash slid down towards the floor, stars dancing in front of her eyes.

Twilight choked on her breaths, forcing her wobbly knees to stand upright and hold her weight. The last morsels of energy were drained from her body and she collapsed to the floor, a tired feeling washing over her like a tidal wave.

"D-did it w-work?"

Rainbow's head throttled, but she accomplished in poising herself on all four of her hooves. She shook her head, trying to rid the stars from her vision. She teetered over to Twilight and helped her stand, before going over to the mirror and studying herself for several good moments.

No gray hairs or feathers!

Rainbow's heart leaped in her chest. "Yes, yes, it did work!"

Twilight smiled wearily, her eyes drooping from lack of energy. "That's - that's great. Go fly around f-for a bit, to see if - "

Her mane was roughly buffetted as a malicious breeze swept across the room and Rainbow barrelled towards the door. It flung open on impact, and she began flying and zooming brilliantly throughout the air, the wind catching her mane and gently pummelling the hairs on her body.

Then, she swiftly bolted back through the door and landed in front of the mirror again. She spread her wings, studying every inch and detail, including her mane.

And guess what?

No gray hairs or feathers!

Rainbow Dash cried out in joy and swept Twilight up in an enormous bear hug as they both tumbled through the room, knocking books of their cases and flower pots off their pedestals.

"Thank you, Twilight! Thank you _so _much!"

"Anything for a dear friend, Rainbow Dash," Twilight responded, nuzzling her cheek against Rainbow's. "Looks like you've got a letter to write to Princess Celestia."

Dash broke from the hug. "Huh, what for?"

"I figured you should tell her about this - and not just because it holds true friendship inside, but because the Princess would get a good laugh, too!"

"Ha ha, very funny, Twilight," Rainbow scoffed.

But, when their eyes met, they both couldn't help but burst out with real, pure, friendly laughter and hug each other tight as tears rolled down their faces and the rain began to wash away the gloomy gray strands of the day's mane.

**A/N: This is probably the longest one-shot I've ever written - huh. If only somepony were here to pat me on the back... guess I'll have to do it myself! *dam breaks* **

**You'd get that reference if you've seen the episode, "The Mysterious Mare Do Well." Heh. **

**Anyway, reviews would be very much appreciated. For now I'm going to rest my hooves and have a nice sleep. Thanks for reading!**


End file.
